I think the contemporary is so high because I read a lot of category romance. I didn't read a ton of single title contemporaries. Plus, often if a book is a RS, it also gets categorized in my contemporary shelf. But it definitely confirms that my two favorite subgenres are historical and RS. Hmm... wonder if I can stick to just one category per book for next year. Not likely.

So what books did I absolutely love? I had 24 5-star reads. That's 8% of my total. I'm not going to list them all; you can find them on my Goodreads account (link to my 5-star shelf is at the right). Of those, several were rereads, and I won't include them here. I only had one 1 rating in there (Sexy as Hell, which I reviewed for Book Binge - I just don't like reading about cheaters and assholes, what can I say?).

Here are the ones that stood out to me so greatly that I would pimp them to you and nag until you read them. In no particular order.

Captain's Surrender: Alex Beecroft (m/m)
A sweeping epic historical showing a wonderful, sweet love set against the harsh life of the Royal Navy.

Shaken: Dee Tenorio (contemporary)
I've never ever included a novella before, but this was soooo good! A married couple tries to put their life back together after the death of their daughter.

6 comments:

You had a great year, Lori! I'm so glad to see two In Death books made your favorites list!

And look at that... a handful of paranormals managed some time in your reading queue! I know you're not much of a fan. No urban fantasy for you, huh? What's funny is that I don't consider urban fantasy my go-to genre, but so many favorites end up being UF anyway. Maybe I'm in denial. LOL.

@Christine: All the paranormals this year were shifters (wolves specifically, if memory serves). I think I had an In Death book on my list last year, too.

@Leslie: Kathryn Shay's single titles are great. And I haven't read any of Carrie Lofty's other books, but Wendy put two of them on her best of list this year. And Shannon Stacey is awesome. Love both her straight contemps and her RS. Oh, and she's written a couple western historicals, too!

Savor the Parrish's when you read them. It doesn't sound like she'll get to do any more of them. Although with so many authors pubbing their own work on Smashwords, there is still hope :)

I have Shay on my "to buy" list, definitely! And, I just won that book by Carrie Lofty! I'm so excited. :) We share our love of Adrien English as favorites for 2010. :) I was surprised that my top pick was UF this year and not romance... that's a new one for me.